John Walker of Rock Paper Shotgun has played the first few hours of Bioware's highly anticipated Mass Effect: Andromeda, the epic sci-fi role-playing game due later this month (March 21 NA, March 23 Europe – as if you hadn't marked your calendars already).

[...] The first few hours of Andromeda are a gruesome trudge through the most trite bilge of the previous three games, smeared out in a setting that’s horribly familiar, burdened with some outstandingly awful writing, buried beneath a UI that appears to have been designed to infuriate in every possible way.

[...] I’m at a loss. What I expect from BioWare is slightly dodgy combat, but splendid writing and characters. What I’ve seen so far is some decent enough combat (but nothing beyond what you’d expect in a third person shooter), and some of the most dreadful writing. I cannot emphasise enough how poor it’s been.​